"For that your company will stand trial and be found guilty. It will probably be outlawed, and certainly bankrupt once fines and reparations are paid. Meanwhile, this planet, under the guidance of Universal Relief, will be helped to recuperate and the people will be informed of the gross injustice they have suffered. I am sure they will then desire to return to their previous system.
"But so much for the future. What about the past? Do you fully realize the enormity of the crime that your company has committed?
"Of course you don't. You weren't with me when I saw a nice old gentleman, one of the most brilliant minds of the age, blasted down with primitive rifles and even more primitive rage. You haven't heard the screams at night, have you? You weren't around, and neither was I, thank God, when Gerta Robin, that beautiful woman physicist was caught by the mob.
"Friend against friend, and the old hunting guns polished up for more deadly and constant shooting—is that a story that belongs in galactic history? Is it for this that great galactic corporations work—to turn peaceable planets into charnel houses for a stinking profit?
"That's the charge that you, and the rest of your workers, will have to answer to—not in courts, but to the people of the Galaxy.
"And, most important—to yourselves!"
With that, he strode out.
Kim Rogers was again in the presence of Roald Gibbons, and he was angry again.
"And don't look so smug. I know what you did. I worked with your father long enough to know about his special agents—but don't think the operation was all your doing.